New Jersey Governor Corzine Slaps Bush With an Intent to Sue Letter

Governor Corzine today sent a letter to President Bush challenging his recent decision limiting the Children's Health Insurance Program. Corzine says he is ready to take legal action if necessary. I am excerpting the last part of the letter that uses pretty strong language:

The letter imposes specific conditions that would harm our children and that would make the administration of the program practically impossible, including:

• the requirement that children lack coverage for at least one year before enrollment in the program without allowing any exceptions – a harsh and unnecessarily long wait that is four times longer than our current “crowd out” requirement, which was approved by your CMS in November 2005;
• the condition that would bar the provision of coverage to children in families above 250 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, unless there has been less than a 2 percent decrease in employer-based coverage over the past five years – an unreasonable and unattainable requirement given the current negative national trend in employer-based coverage; and,
• the condition that SCHIP expansion is allowed only where the State has been able to enroll 95 percent of all eligible low-income children in SCHIP or Medicaid – a requirement that no state will be able to meet. These restrictions will effectively gut our successfully FamilyCare program and will only increase the ranks of the uninsured.

Since the conditions imposed by the letter contravene the fundamental objectives underlying SCHIP, violate the terms of its statutory and regulatory framework, and overstep CMS’s authority by altering regulations without utilizing appropriate procedural safeguards, New Jersey will continue to provide health care to children in families with income up to 350 percent of the Federal Poverty Level in accordance with terms of its State Plan Amendments and Waiver approved by the federal government in 1998, 2005 and 2006. We will vigorously continue our commitment to enrolling all children eligible for our current program.

I ask you to reconsider your position given the critical importance of this issue. Please also know that I am prepared, if necessary, to pursue legal action to further the goal of protecting our most vulnerable children.

Good for Governor Corzine for taking the initiative to challenge this draconian decision. I have major problems with Corzine, but this is a decision should be lauded.